Bronze Brushes Don't Hurt Barrels.

[Gargoyle]

Change my mind...

 

[dc.fireman]

Use bronze brushes every time

Use them every time you clean. And replace them often. Any time someone calls with any type of fouling issue they are not brushing or they are using a nylon brush. Save yourself grief, brush often. It wont hurt anything.

forum.accurateshooter.com

 

[Dusty Stevens]

They will if you use an abrasive on them like jb or iosso. @FrankG i believe posted the pics. I only use butchs on a bronze brush then neutralize in a water bottle

 

[Dgd6mm]

How are the Champions and record setters brushing their barrels?

 

[jackieschmidt]

How are the Champions and record setters brushing their barrels?

Bronze brushes.

 

[gambleone]

They will if you use an abrasive on them like jb or iosso. @FrankG i believe posted the pics. I only use butchs on a bronze brush then neutralize in a water bottle

I do the same, only use brake fluid to neutralize the brush.
Correction, brake cleaner is what I meant.

 

[STS]

I love it when I see the following.........
"I will never use a bronze brush on my match grade barrel."
... 6 months later the same guy posts...
"My barrel stopped shooting. Is the black stuff in this bore scope image carbon? Is that the carbon ring that I've heard about?"

If I've seen it once I've seen it 100 times.

 

[Plumsask]

Didn't someone just post a video of a YouTube with a bronze brush attached to a cordless drill giving hell to his barrwl and then borescoping afterwards to show what seemed to be no visible damage?

 

[jelenko]

Yes. He did the same thing with a nylon brush - the nylon brush appeared to remove some metal.

I would just like to add that I've used Iosso and JB with bronze brushes with no scratch/gouges in the barrel.

I can say that reversing a bronze brush that isn't worn enough does leave marks.

 

[Gargoyle]

There is a powerful force behind group think and the perpetuation of lore created on the forums. Regurgitation of processes never actually conducted by those who champion.

 

[JEFFPPC]

There is a powerful force behind group think and the perpetuation of lore created on the forums. Regurgitation of processes never actually conducted by those who champion.

This applies to an extremely large percentage of the posts on this forum. Only one way to know, test. Back on topic, although I use a bronze brush sparingly I also believe dragging one back over the crown in excess does the crown no good. A cleaning rod in a poor bore guided being rammed vigorously back and forth probably does no good for the lands either. Of course allowing a bore to get in an ugly state due to too many rounds between proper cleaning.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

We just need to pay attention to what we are doing. I see people use a bore guide and then pay no attention to how bad they are bending the rod as if using a bore guide prevents the rod from touching no matter what. It doesnt. It just keeps the solvent in the barrel. These things are made of plastic, they flex and many dont even have a hole thats centered. Use a rod like your shooting pool, use your off hand to hold the butt with your fingers guiding the rod like a pool stick. Use a couple wet patches, 10 brush strokes then clean the brush and rods. Two more wet patches and repeat until patches come out mostly clean after the brush. For me this take 2-3 cycles. It normally takes me less than 10 minutes to clean my barrels. What did not come out in that time is not going to come out without an abrasive. I will JB once or twice in a barrels life after the carbon has built up to where I can feel it on the brush, being careful to not over do it. I used to clean to bare steel every time. I did not notice shorter barrel life but I did it carefully. Now I dont mind a little black streak left in a groove. I shoot just as well and spend less time cleaning.

 

[Daddymac]

A copy and paste from the Lilja web site.

Do use a bronze brush. Some shooters and gunsmiths have the mistaken idea that a bronze brush will harm a barrel. It will not cause any damage to a barrel and the use of a bronze brush is necessary to remove all fouling. Substituting a nylon brush will not remove fouling as effectively as a bronze brush.

 

[Emmett Dibble]

A copy and paste from the Lilja web site.

Do use a bronze brush. Some shooters and gunsmiths have the mistaken idea that a bronze brush will harm a barrel. It will not cause any damage to a barrel and the use of a bronze brush is necessary to remove all fouling. Substituting a nylon brush will not remove fouling as effectively as a bronze brush.

"But they want you to wear your barrel out so you have to buy more...."

Or some crap like that... LOL.

If it's good enough for Lija... it's good enough for me...

 

[DirtySteve]

Didn't someone just post a video of a YouTube with a bronze brush attached to a cordless drill giving hell to his barrwl and then borescoping afterwards to show what seemed to be no visible damage?

I know a guy that used a drill and a bronze brush and destroyed his barrel.. I will say this I am sure he did not use a bore guide nor did he use any type of care nor concern when going about it.. Actually reflecting back on it he did not say it was a bronze brush. He is an idiot. He sat in his garage and watched a dirt dauber crawl into his rifles barrel several times per day over several days. He did not realized it was building a nest in the barrel. A few days after curiosity got to him and he looked down the barrel. I put a new barrel on his Savage for him.. The barrel was missing a lot of rifling.

Edit: Ok I think some folks may think I am being mean or overly critical of my neighbor by calling him an idiot... Well he cut the cord off a brand new straight out of the box welder because he thought it had the wrong plug on it...

 

[Dgd6mm]

We just need to pay attention to what we are doing. I see people use a bore guide and then pay no attention to how bad they are bending the rod as if using a bore guide prevents the rod from touching no matter what. It doesnt. It just keeps the solvent in the barrel. These things are made of plastic, they flex and many dont even have a hole thats centered. Use a rod like your shooting pool, use your off hand to hold the butt with your fingers guiding the rod like a pool stick. Use a couple wet patches, 10 brush strokes then clean the brush and rods. Two more wet patches and repeat until patches come out mostly clean after the brush. For me this take 2-3 cycles. It normally takes me less than 10 minutes to clean my barrels. What did not come out in that time is not going to come out without an abrasive. I will JB once or twice in a barrels life after the carbon has built up to where I can feel it on the brush, being careful to not over do it. I used to clean to bare steel every time. I did not notice shorter barrel life but I did it carefully. Now I dont mind a little black streak left in a groove. I shoot just as well and spend less time cleaning.

Purely common sense right here!

 

[Ron IA]

you just got done blasting a copper bullet out of your barrel at 1500 + mph and at unreal rpm's and your worried about a soft brush?????

 

[dellet]

Last time this came up I simply stated, never under estimate the ability of someone with persistence and a drill.

The rest of the story is, while helping someone trouble shoot accuracy problems shooting a 220 SMK in a 300 Blackout, I mentioned that since it was basically the bullet the chamber was designed around, it should be far better than what he was getting.

Told him to seat the bullet at mag length, 2.260” where it would have a .010” jump, and work down from there. Chamber designed to jam a 220 at 2.270”.

If you do the math, a 220 SMK seated at 2.260” would have about .600” of bullet in the case.

Surprisingly he claimed that in his barrel, a 220 SMK would fall out of the case before hitting the lands.

Cleaning method used, bronze brush on a Makita.

I can’t say for sure that his cleaning method caused the problem, but that’s the story.

 

[tominboise]

I love it when I see the following.........
"I will never use a bronze brush on my match grade barrel."
... 6 months later the same guy posts...
"My barrel stopped shooting. Is the black stuff in this bore scope image carbon? Is that the carbon ring that I've heard about?"

If I've seen it once I've seen it 100 times.

I also like the old saying "more barrels are ruined by improper cleaning than anything else". Usually repeated on rimfire threads ad nauseum.

 

[BoydAllen]

In order to do a proper comparison of cleaning techniques, we need to have a proper bore guide, and use the rod properly. One tip that I picked up came from a YouTube video made by a prominent French Benchrest shooter, link below. The video is in French but you can still learn a lot. I asked her what the stuff in the unlabeled bottle that was shaken was, and she told me that it is 50 50 alcohol and ATF, used for powder fouling. Short range group BR shooters clean often and shoot the best barrels made, so a lot of what is posted about rough barrels and high numbers of shots between cleanings does not apply. The new tip was how she starts the brush back into the barrel as it comes back into the muzzle.